Proving that professional gamers can be no different to the casual players of the same game, League of Legends pro Christian Rivera has been banned from the game for "persistent toxic behavior".

While the game's Tribunal recognises that "the decision to impact someone's career is not one we make lightly", they've been left with little choice, as Rivera—who played as IWillDominate—was a serial offender, having fronted the game's in-house authorities a whopping nine times, resulting in eight charges.

LoL's Tribunal says that his behaviour was so bad, in fact, that in terms of his "harassment score" within the game "he ranked at the top of the list of North American pro players and among the worst 0.7% of all North American players."

What made him such a hassle to play against? Seems he "has a persistent record of in-game harassment, verbal abuse, offensive language and negative attitude".

The final verdict in his ruling, which has been approved by developers Riot Games, reads:

His persistent tendency to engage in verbal abuse and insults, his lack of cordial demeanor, and his treatment of less-skilled players is unacceptable for any player, especially a high-profile professional player who has a regular opportunity to lead the community by example.

Tough moves, you might think, but then the one thing holding League of Legends back more than anything is the reputation of its playerbase for being, well, toxic. If developers Riot want to start making examples of people, especially those who should be leading "by example", this is exactly what's going to start happening.